Greater Western Sydney General Manager Wayne Campbell says Jonathon Patton's third knee reconstruction is a “tragedy” and the club is devastated for him.
Scans confirmed this morning Patton had torn his ACL for the third time, after previous knee injuries in 2013 and 2014.
Campbell revealed the 25-year-old was initially “inconsolable” following the incident, but is now ready to begin the long road to recovery.
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“To see him go down yesterday in a really innocuous training drill was devastating, and in footy terms it’s a real tragedy,” he told SEN Mornings.
“For any player to have one knee injury is a setback, to have two is greater than that, but to have three, we’re all feeling for him at the moment.
“He’s almost inconsolable really. We were holding out faint hope that we might have got some luck and some good news, but that didn’t come through.
“Talking to him last night he was a bit more rational about it and was ready to confront it. He knows what he’s in for but he was in reasonable spirits given the circumstances that he’s in.”
The fact that Patton was just starting to find his groove after being dropped to the NEAFL earlier in the season, and the freakish nature of the injury, makes it an even bitterer pill to swallow according to the Giants head of football.
“It was a forwards v backs drill, which they do all the time,” Campbell said.
“A high ball came in, he just jumped for the ball himself from a 40 metre kick, which he would have done a thousand times in his career.
“He landed on his left knee and watching the vision it’s not one of those ones where the knee crumples from one side to the other, you could just see the slightest of twists in it.
“But clearly he went down, and having done one before, by the time he hit the ground I think he knew that there was something not quite right.
“He’s been building a really nice career. He’s had a couple of hiccups this year, went back to the NEAFL, but did it in the right way and had a really strong attitude through it all.
“We’ve seen over the past four to five weeks that he has been able to get back into the AFL side and be a strong contributor and probably kicked the winning goal for us last week.”
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